Overview
The article that is going to be reviewed is the one by Chung and colleagues. The article was dubbed ‘Marital status as an independent predictor of event-free survival of patients with heart failure’. The article was chosen because it included at least one concept triangulation. This is the concept of metaparadigms. This article was also selected due to its importance to the field of nursing. The concepts discussed would be helpful to nursing care.
Metaparadigms concepts
These are the ways in which the concepts of nursing are defined. There are four concepts that are important in describing the profession. They include the person, nursing, health and the environment. This article describes these four concepts.
Person
This refers to the sick person as a subject. This is because the family and other social groups define who the person is. In the article, the authors have described the persons with heart failure as persons in need of social support (Chung et al., 2009). This is what enables them to get better and have greater chances of surviving heart failure. Therefore, the research was conducted not because the persons are objects of professional care and surveillance but because they are actually humans.
Health
The term health is said to be relative. It does not mean perfect health since health to one person may not mean the same to another. For example, an individual suffering from cancer may consider health to imply a situation where he or she is not suffering immensely. Even the fact that he or she is alive may mean health to the person. In this article, the healthy individual may be that individual who has been able to survive heart failure despite the depressive symptoms.
Environment
This concept describes the wholesomeness of health care. It proposes that for a patient to recover there should be a combination of factors. These include the home life, the mental state, among other environmental factors. In this article, the patients spouse is a major part of that environment.
Nursing
This concept describes nursing as the care for the patient.
Nursing concepts described
The article agrees with the fact that depressive symptoms are the major causes of death when it comes to patients with heart failure. However, it proposes that those individuals who receive social support from their spouses have a greater chance of producing positive outcomes. They are the ones who had longer event-free survival. This is as compared with those who were not married. This meant that the environment of the patient really meant a lot in the patient’s survival.
In this case, the spouse (wife or husband) was considered part of the patient’s environment. This is where the patient could receive social support. Social support from such close persons as the spouses has great effects on the health and well-being of the patient. This is because the environment does not only entail the hospital, the nursing practitioners and physicians. There are other factors that determine the full context of health care. It goes beyond the confines of the hospital to the environment at home and the mental state of the individual. The person must have a stable mental state in order to facilitate the health status. Such a mental state includes the patient’s desire to recover. This greatly influences the recovery process.
According to the article, the authors suggest that poor or lack of social support worsens the situation for the persons with heart failure. It argues that it leads to the increase in readmissions to hospitals and even deaths. However, having a spouse changes all this. This provides an assurance to the patient that there is the availability of social support. In fact, this is the highest level of social support that can be provided to the patient, according to the article.
Why this is a good article
This article is good because it helps bring a concept in nursing that is of value to the nursing profession. Many have not been able to explain the differences that occur in the rates of recovery when it comes to patients with the same condition and with the same levels of depression. Some patients have been seen to have a better attitude towards their condition or disease. These kinds of patients have been determined to have greater chances of surviving due to the increased speed towards recovery.
How it affects nursing practice
The main concept that has been discussed in the article is that of the environment. It has clearly showed that the environment around the patient contributes to the speed of recovery and leads to a longer event-free survival. The environment, in this case, was the patient’s spouse. This is where the patient received social support. Consequently, this led to the reduced chances of readmission to the hospital.
In the nursing profession, social support is vital. Nurses are actually supposed to provide care and compassion to the patient. Therefore, nurses should strive to provide social support and continuously reassure the patients that they will be well. This provides a positive mental state and positively influences the recovery of the patient.
Reference
Chung, M., Lennie, T., Riegel, B., Wu, J., Dekker, R., & Moser, D. (2009). Marital status as an independent predictor of event-free survival of patients with heart failure. American Journal of Critical Care, 18(6), 562-570.